Only last week the reigning Olympic, World and European rings champion Eleftherios Petrounias said that he would miss the World Championships due to his shoulder injury. The injury has been bothering him for quite a while and during Euros, he said he was unable to train because he was paralyzed by the pain. However, today he announced that he decided to give Worlds a try after all.
Petrounias has been diagnosed with a partial tear his left supraspinatus tendon and most of the pain is caused by the inflammation rather than by the tear itself. His doctors recommended undergoing a surgery now in order to have the issue fixed by the 2019 Worlds and the Olympics. The surgery is scheduled for November, 5th, two days after the end of the championships. At the moment, Petrounias is able to train only parts of his routine, which he showed in podium training today. Overall, he will need to perform the full routine only twice throughout the competition (assuming that he makes the event final), so hopefully this is doable and won’t cause further injury to his shoulder.
